NASCAR star Kyle Larson talks favorite Iowa spots for food and racing
Watch as NASCAR Cup Series driver Kyle Larson talks about his favorite places in Iowa while driving in a Corvette Stingray at Iowa Speedway.
Longtime NASCAR Cup Series driver Jeff Burton expects racing at Iowa Speedway to be as fast and furious as ever, as NASCAR’s top series returns to Newton.
Burton, who raced in the Cup Series from 1993 to 2014 and now works as an NBC Sports NASCAR analyst, said he’s never seen a bad race at the 7/8-mile track. Just like 2024, Iowa Speedway in Newton will be the first race NBC Sports will televise this season. This time it will be on USA Network, scheduled for 2:30 p.m. CT Sunday, August 3.
This will be the second NASCAR Cup Series race at Iowa Speedway since it was built in 2006. Ryan Blaney, whose mother is from Chariton, won the inaugural Cup Series race in 2024 in front of 80 friends and family members.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bad race there,” Burton said. “I love this racetrack. I was super excited when they announced they were going to have a Cup race here.”
In May 2024, NASCAR, which owns the track, partially repaved all four corners. Drivers feared the repave would create single-file racing as cars stuck to the repaved bottom portions of corners. Instead, the June 2024 race was one of NASCAR’s most exciting short-track races in years.
Typically, repaves make the bottom the predominant lane because it’s the shortest way around the track, Burton said. In Iowa’s case, there were multiple groves, which allowed passing in the corners.
“Clearly, the place to be was the new asphalt, but the new asphalt was three grooves wide. So it kept the cars close together because the pavement wasn’t so wide,” Burton said. “It was a really, really good race.”
Over the last 14 months, the repaved sections have aged, changing from the color of new charcoal to a light grey. As repaved sections age, grip will go away, which will continue to improve the racing, he said. Drivers like tracks with less grip because it puts it “more into their hands,” he said.
The forecast for race day is a high of 76 degrees and sunny. The unseasonably cool weather will make conditions ideal, but the racing will be determined by the amount of grip on repaved sections, he said.
“The less grip you have, the more groves you have,” Burton said. “I don’t anticipate that it’s lost enough grip to drive moving up out of the new asphalt into the older asphalt. I don’t anticipate that. But I think that lower grip induces more passing opportunities.”
Burton never raced at Iowa Speedway, but tested there as a driver. Last year, Rusty Wallace, the track’s designer and NASCAR Hall of Famer, said his goal was to create a better version of Richmond Raceway, a 3/4 mile D-shaped racetrack in Virginia. Iowa is a driver’s paradise with the ability to move around and give them options, he said.
“This created a bigger, faster Richmond,” Burton said. “It’s been multiple groves. From the time it was built, it has put on great races. Every race that I’ve watched from there has been a compelling race.”
Philip Joens covers retail, real estate and motorsports for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached at 515-284-8184 or pjoens@registermedia.com.
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